Quote Originally Posted by Anixx View Post
This was exactly because the books were so cheap so that the people bought a lot of books.
this was because the books which were really in demand (as the articles says: фантастика, детектив, приключенческая литература или авантюрный роман) were published in scarce numbers and a single other way of getting these without night long waiting in line on occasional sale campaign, was buying them from illegal resellers at a higher black market price

since book publishing was a state enterprise controlled by the Party, it mainly promoted works loyal to the regime and what the regime wanted people to need rather than what they really needed, although I don't deny that there were worthwhile books inside the heaps of published waste paper

i have no idea how profitable book publishing in USSR was, but if it wasn't, it's only due to publishing of lots of rubbish instead of popular items, which is impossible by definition because a lot of times popular was something unapproved by the state